10.4.11

Up Against the Wall Motherfucker

Paying my monthly Friends of AK Press contribution always makes me feel pretty damn good. I'm reading Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority currently, which I got through my monthly contribution. Right now I'm at the section that deals with Black Mask (later known as Up Against the Wall Motherfucker!). I wasn't around to experience those heady days of busting into the Pentagon and "shutting down" the Museum of Modern Art, but that doesn't mean I can't be giddy when I read of Black Mask's exploits. A perfect fusion of art and activism meant to destroy the very society Leftists apologized for and Right Wingers sought to protect at all costs. Again -- giddy.

A lot of Black Mask's activities had the air of theatre and pranks. The group challenged everyone and everything. The very first issue of its magazine said this on the cover: "We assault your Gods ... We sing of your death. DESTROY THE MUSEUMS ...." How can you not love a call to arms like that? As Chumbawamba sang, "What we need is a break from the old routine."

These days, anything close to Black Mask/Up Against the Wall Motherfucker is looked at as a terrorist organization to be infiltrated, disorganized and eventually penalized. After all, the government can't have people running around threatening to throw bombs, or even -- God forbid -- really throwing bombs. That's its job!

My small contribution to AK Press every month helps to keep it afloat. At a time when publishing houses are so scared of the written word that they refuse to print anything that could be deemed "controversial," AK Press, along with a handful of others, knows no such fear. In fact, AK Press looks at preserving history as one of its jobs. Radical history, yes, but that's the only kind of history that's really changed things.

What we need is a break from the old routine.

What I think we're getting is anything but. I wonder how Black Mask would deal with that these days? What would its challenges be? What would it target? Back in the late '60s it targeted everything under the sun. It's goal was no less than total annihilation of the sacred cows, though the members admitted they knew no such thing would happen. They wanted disruption. The starting members embraced anarchism and used that as a platform to threaten chaos. In those days people were receptive to the ideas put forth by Black Mask. Today? I'm not quite sure, but I know that many of the things that appear quite radical are nothing more than variations on the themes they propose to abolish.

Still, I can't help but smile.

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